As notorious for his views on the often lamentable status of theatre as he is for his prolific body of work, playwright and screenwriter David Hare is the perfect person to discuss the state of British drama in this interview with the Guardian's Michael Billington. No stranger to controversy, Hare's most recent work, a film adaptation of The Reader, starring Kate Winslet, has received as much criticism as praise. Undoubtedly, Hare - who this year denounced the BBC's abandonment of the single TV play as a "spineless betrayal of the playwright, the art and the public" - will defend himself with the intelligence we've come to expect from a man whose talents include such gauntlet-throwing, institution-bashing plays as Plenty and Via Dolorosa, and persuading Nicole Kidman to bare all in The Blue Room.